DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A Des Moines hospital is alerting about 2,600 people who had open-heart surgery there from 2012 to 2015 that they might have been exposed to a bacterial infection. The Des Moines Register reports that two of the former Mercy Medical Center patients have been diagnosed with an infection with the germs, called non-tuberculous mycobacteria.

Iowa Department of Public Health medical director Patricia Quinlisk described the germ as “a cousin to tuberculosis, but it’s much less potent and much more slow-growing.” She says University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics issued a similar warning earlier this year. Quinlisk says people who undergo the heart procedures tend to have weak immune systems.

Mercy Medical Center says the bacteria could have spread from a heart-lung bypass machine used in heart surgery.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman reports a Notice of the Atlantic Community School District Special Election was published Wednesday. Persons desiring to vote prior to election day afternoon may vote an absentee ballot at the office of the Cass County Auditor during regular business hours up thru 11:00 a.m. on Election Day September 13th, 2016. The Auditor’s Office regular business hours are 8-a.m. thru 4:30-p.m., Monday thru Friday. The office will be closed Labor Day, September 5th.

The Public Measure up for vote during the election, asks if the Board of Directors for the Atlantic Community School District is authorized for a period of ten (10) years, to levy and impose a Voter approved Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (V-PPEL) not to exceed 85¢ per $1,000 of assessed valuation of the taxable property within the school district, beginning July 1st, 2017, and, to impose a physical plant and equipment income surtax upon the state individual income tax of each individual income taxpayer resident in the school district, beginning with the 2017 calendar year,  with the percent of income surtax not to exceed 20%, to be determined by the board each year.

The ATLANTIC COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT consists of Cass, Audubon and Pottawattamie counties. The polls will open at 12-NOON and close at 8:00 P.M. Sept. 13th. The election is “AT LARGE,” meaning that all residents of the entire school district may vote for the public measure.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:40 a.m. CDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Law enforcement officials have charged a man shot last month by police with assaulting a peace officer and criminal mischief. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office announced the charges Wednesday against 19-year-old Rodricco Radell Parks Jr., of Davenport. The office says the charges were brought after the department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation had concluded their investigation into the July 19 officer-involved shooting.

DECORAH, Iowa (AP) – Heavy overnight rain in northeast Iowa claimed the life of at least one person and forced evacuations and school closures as it washed out roads in and around several communities. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings Wednesday for several northeast Iowa counties. Nearly 8 1/2 inches of rain fell about five miles from Decorah and more than 5 1/2 inches three miles south of Dorchester.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – The body of a man who was swept beneath a Missouri River barge near Hamburg, Iowa, has been recovered from the river just south of the state border in Missouri. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the body of 42-year-old Jason Grayson was recovered Wednesday downstream from Hamburg. Grayson, of Elliot, Iowa, had been missing since Sunday, when the boat he was in lost power and was swept under a barge moored to the bank of the Missouri River.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa prosecutor wants a judge to issue subpoenas for telephone and bank records of two Texas attorneys who believes are connected to a former lottery computer security administrator who fixed lottery games in several states. Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand filed documents Tuesday in the cases of Eddie Tipton and his brother, Tommy Tipton, a former justice of the peace in Flatonia, Texas.

Police in Red Oak, Wednesday afternoon, arrested 49-year old Douglas Fay Penry, of Red Oak, on a charge of Criminal Mischief in the 5th degree. He was taken into custody at around 1:25-p.m. in the 400 block of E. Market Street, in Red Oak.

Additional details about the incident leading to his arrest were not released. Penry was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The body of a man who was swept beneath a Missouri River barge near Hamburg, Iowa, has been recovered from the river just south of the state  border in Missouri. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the body of 42-year-old Jason Grayson, of Elliott, was recovered Wednesday downstream from Hamburg.

Grayson had been missing since Sunday, when the boat he was in lost power and was swept under a barge moored to the bank of the Missouri River. The operator of the boat, 47-year-old Johnnie Fields, of Shenandoah, was able to swim beneath the barge and then was rescued by people along the riverbank.

The 16-foot aluminum fishing boat was recovered Tuesday night.